NEW: Sex offender arrested in Manatee County sting operation

Saturday

Apr 6, 2013 at 6:59 AM

Staff Report

A registered sex offender was arrested Friday night in Manatee County after being lured to what he reportedly thought was a meeting with a teenage girl.According to a Manatee County Sheriff's Office report, Leon Washington, 38, initiated conversation with what he believed to be a 14-year-old girl via an unnamed online chat site. Washington communicated with the fictitious girl for three weeks, the report said, soliciting and enticing the girl to commit sexual acts. The suspect arranged to pick the girl up from a gas station and drive her to the beach to have sex with her, according to the report.Washington traveled to a location in Manatee County with the intent of having sexual relations with what he believed to be a 14 year old girl, the report says. His plans were thwarted when he was greeted instead by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office Crimes Against Children Unit and the Violent Crimes Taskforce. Washington was arrested without incident.He was charged with traveling to meet a minor and engage in sexual acts, use of a computer to solicit a minor to engage in sex acts, and attempted lewd and lascivious battery